African culture: 21 meetings to get 2021 off to a good start
“Day Dream”, by Nigerian artist Fatimah Tuggar, in the “Beyond appearances” exhibition, until May 30, 2021 at the Abattoirs de Toulouse as part of the Africa 2020 Season. © Fatimah Tuggar
Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow
8 min
In Sérignan, Paris, Ouagadougou, Cotonou, New York or around the world, indoors or in the open air, on picture rails or hung on railings, during this month of January, where the key cultural events are scheduled. African?
Here are 21 proposals for the start of 2021. And don't hesitate to send us your “must-haves” for this year to rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.
Publicity
Read more
At the moment, it is not yet known whether museums in France will really reopen on January 8.
In any case, the Ghanaian artist and Golden Lion of Venice, El Anatsui, had already prepared everything for the opening initially scheduled for December 16 of his carte blanche at the Conciergerie de Paris.
In Search of Freedom
was conceived as the emblematic opening of the Africa 2020 Season and its more than 200 events in France to “
look at and understand the world from an African point of view
”.
It is also the first solo exhibition of this extraordinary artist in France.
Also awaiting the government green light,
Le Père de Nafi
, whose theatrical release in France was initially scheduled for January 6.
A cinematographic gem by Senegalese director Mamadou Dia, Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival and also awarded the Audience Award at the
Vues d'Afrique
festival
in Quebec.
Despite the closure of the museums should open, from January 6 to 27, a photographic exhibition on the gates of the Saint-Jacques tower in Paris.
A journey in pictures on the challenges of Congolese society.
Congo in Conversation
is the result of an ambitious collaborative project, coordinated by photographer Finbarr O'Reilly.
From January 7 to 10, in Ouagadougou, the 6th Soko Festival brings together more than twenty musicians and artists from Burkina Faso under the theme
Smile for life
, with participants from Burkina Faso, Mali, Congo, Niger, Nigeria ...
The 29th Suresnes Cités Danse Festival (January 8 - 31), in the Paris region, has planned to open its doors with
One shot
, by choreographer Ousmane Sy, one of the great French representatives in house dance and afro house, who died suddenly last week and whose style incorporates movements inspired by traditional African dances.
An exclusive and 100% feminine creation with eight powerful women sharing the stage, on a musical mix of house dance and Afrobeat.
And in Morocco, you still have until January 10 to take advantage of the
Welcome Home Vol.
II
of the Al Maaden Museum of Contemporary African Art in Marrakech.
From its collection of more than 2,000 works, MACAAL promises "
an unprecedented and captivating aesthetic experience
", with a new look at contemporary creation on the African continent, also thanks to its particular interest in new mediums.
How to build "
a strong relationship free from the stigmas of the past between African states and France
", wonders the
Distance Ardente
exhibition
at the Regional Museum of Contemporary Art Occitanie (MRAC), scheduled until March 21.
Under the aegis of Moroccan commissioner Hicham Daoudi, it is a question of measuring the distance "
which separates France and the populations of the African continent
".
The new film by Tunisian director Kaouther ben Hania should be released in theaters in France on January 13.
The man who sold his skin
tells the story of a Syrian refugee forced to make a Faustian pact with a contemporary artist.
Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse presents
Africa in all its states of art
.
Until May 30,
Beyond the Appearances
brings together African artists who share questions about transmission in contemporary societies which, beyond Africa, find resonances in France and the rest of the world.
The poetic starting point of the exhibition is a reflection by Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty.
From January 14 to April 3, the Comœdia Espace d'Art in Brest, Brittany, offers
Visions d'Afrique
.
An exhibition on the place of contemporary African creation and with crossed views.
The Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (MAM) is offering the exhibition
The Power of My Hands
from January 22
.
Africa (s): women artists
.
Works produced by sixteen women artists from several English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking African countries, or from the diaspora, offering a glimpse of a contemporary African art scene little presented in France.
One of the many proposals for the Africa 2020 Season, organized until July 2021 in France.
January 23 is expected the grand inauguration of the Paris Stock Exchange, transformed by the architect Tadao Ando.
Located in the heart of the French capital, this new flagship institution of contemporary art will host over 6,800 square meters some of the 10,000 pieces from the collection of billionaire and patron François Pinault.
It remains to be seen what place will be given to the works of African artists.
You have until January 31 to send your manuscript for the 2nd edition of the
Voix d'Afriques
literary prize
, initiated by RFI and the JC Lattès editions to bring out young French-speaking authors from the African continent.
The winning novel will be nominated next March for publication scheduled for September.
The winner will also benefit from a residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, partner of the prize.
Who will be the successor of Abobo Marley, winner of the 2020 award?
Between January 18 and 24, the International Documentary Festival (FIPADOC) in Biarritz promises “
exceptional works selected from all over the world
”, so certainly films from Africa as well.
Until January 23, you can discover the
Artists of the World
, an exhibition at the French Institute in Cotonou.
Curator Dominique Zinkpé brought together a dozen contemporary visual artists from Benin to invest in the fields of painting, sculpture, photography, installations, video art ...
Extended following the confinement, you still have until July 5 to visit the great
Kinshasa Chroniques
exhibition
at the City of Architecture and Heritage in Paris.
70 Kinshasa artists make their imaginations vibrate to make us hear the creative energy and the foundations of the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A collective artistic work in the form of chronicles.
January 24 will be the World Day for African and Afro-descendant Culture (JMCA), proclaimed by Unesco in 2019. The idea is to promote all kinds of events related to African and Afro-descendant culture, essential for the development of continent and for humanity in general.
The Parisian gallery Magnin-A still presents until February 20 an exhibition of very young African artists.
The Congolese Hilary Balu, 28, in his latest series,
Voyage vers Mars
, metaphorically
staged
the tragedy of contemporary migration.
As for the Nigerian Joseph Obanubi, this multimedia artist was in the final of the Contemporary African Photography Prize 2019 with
Techno Heads
, and he won the British Council Prize for Emerging Artists in Nigeria in 2019.
From January 29 to February 6, the Clermont-Ferrand International Court Festival takes place in central France.
While waiting to know if there will be African films in the 2021 competition of the largest festival in the world dedicated to short films, we can already be delighted with the special selection “Regards d'Afrique” which always offers a discovery of young filmmakers. Africans giving "
the tone of a new Africa
".
Arte del mar
("The Art of the Sea") is entitled the exhibition that the Metropolitan Museum in New York has just inaugurated on artistic exchanges on the edge of the Caribbean Sea before the 16th century between the civilizations of the Taíno of the Antilles archipelago and their powerful peers on the continent.
This is the first Met exhibition to consider the Caribbean as its own contact zone.
Works of art on display until June 27 celebrate the region's ancestral traditions, and a 20th-century painting by an Afro-Caribbean artist explores their enduring heritage.
Until May 2, the Zeitz Mocaa Contemporary Art Museum in Cape Town, South Africa is presenting
Waiting for Gebane
, a retrospective by South African artist Senzeni Marasela.
The exhibition traces important themes in her practice, particularly with regard to the alter ego of the artist, Theodorah.
Inspired by her mother, she explores the role of black women working in South Africa, subjected to the devastating effects of migration, patriarchy and apartheid.
►
Send us your “essentials” of African culture in 2021 at rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Culture Africa
Ghana
Senegal
DRC
Burkina Faso
France
Morocco
Tunisia
Arts
Literature
Exposure
Cinema
Nigeria
United States
Culture
our selection
South Africa